Perfect Love Requires Three – Unlocking the Mystery of The Trinity

The Simple Catholic Snapshots:

A Lover needs a Beloved, therefore there are at least two Persons in One God

Love is Perfected when it is Given in Complete Self-Sacrifice

God’s Love is Perfect

Therefore, there are Three Persons in One God, Each Giving Perfect Self-Giving Love to the Others

The Simple Catholic Truth:

Perhaps no other dogma is so fundamental to Christianity, yet remains such a profound mystery as the Holy Trinity. Scripture is clear, there is one God. Scripture is also clear that God is revealed to us as God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. But how can this be? How can 1 equal 3?

Brilliant philosophers and theologians have been debating the Trinity for two thousand years trying to define God’s nature and pinning down what exactly is meant by a “person.” These writings are interesting at times, challenging to be sure, but for now I’ll just use the term “person” without getting bogged down in defining it. In this post, however, I’m would like to look at just one narrow aspect of the Trinity and that is: “Why Three?” Why is it necessary that God revealed himself as three persons? [1] Why not one? Why not four or more? I will present these ideas as plainly as possible but will also include a sequence of graphics as learning tools.

To get started, recall that Holy Scripture reveals that there is only one God. I’ll retain the familiar Christian terminology and refer to this God as a person that we call ‘Father’. We will graphically represent the person as a circle, and the name of this person is Father as shown below.

Ok, so far so good. Using this graphic as a reminder, we now have One God and One person (called Father).

Next, we find in Scripture (1 Jn 4:8) an additional revelation that God is Love. St. Augustine reasoned correctly that every Lover must necessarily have a Beloved. In other words, if a person is Love, then there must be another person to participate in that Love. We can now update our graphic to match our evolving understanding of God.

In this diagram we now have the second person needed to participate in and fulfill the Loving nature of the Father. We refer to this second person as the ‘Son’, or more specifically Jesus Christ. Scripture tells us that the Son shares the nature of God the Father (e.g. eternal, Loving, all powerful etc.) and is therefore also God. We now have One God and Two Persons (called Father and Son).

But Scripture also refers to another aspect of God that is called the Holy Spirit. We now must reconcile the existence of the Holy Spirit with our understanding of God as represented by the above diagram. St Augustine tries to include the Holy Spirit at this point by suggesting that the Holy Spirit is in fact the Love between the Father and Son. I have updated the diagram to include his idea:

But take a careful look at the above diagram. Yes, the person of the Father and the person of the Son exist in proper loving relationship, and the Holy Spirit is included, but here the Holy Spirit is not a person. In this version of understanding, the Holy Spirit is an artifact of the relationship between Father and Son and not a co-equal person as the Bible indicates. Something is still missing.

The step the resolves this dilemma gets a little tricky but stay with me and it will make some sense when we finish. Richard of St. Victor suggests that in the loving relationship between Father and Son shown above, the Love between the Father and Son is not perfect because that Love is not an act of complete self-giving. In other words, the Love of the Father to the Son can not be returned in kind by the Son to the Father. If this dual, two-way nature of love were true, the Father would be ‘getting something in return’ and this violates the idea of perfect self-giving Love. The only solution to this logical dilemma is for the Father to will (for the good of the Son) that the Son have a loving relationship with another. This of course requires a third person that we refer to as the Holy Spirit and is shown (partially) in the diagram below:

Take note that the Love from Father to Son is now perfected by the Love of Son to another (Holy Spirit). Since God is Love and God is perfect Love, His love must be perfected in this manner which includes a third person.

A few quick comments are absolutely necessary before the diagram is completed. We must understand that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are equal persons, are equally eternal, sharing equally the same nature as ‘God’. In the above set of diagrams, I showed a sequence that started with the Father, then to the Son and then to the Holy Spirit but we only used this sequence for initial simplicity. In actuality, the Love of any of the Persons of God towards the other Persons is equal, simultaneous and interdependent. This leads us to the final version of the diagram which I believe best represents an understanding (although still imperfect) of the Trinity based on the idea that the essence of God is perfect self-giving Love.

Here we see that the Holy Trinity is One God yet Three Persons formed together and united by perfect inseparable Love. The Holy Trinity is logically necessary because of the perfect self-giving nature of God. In other words, perfect Love requires three!

Of course, the explanation above is lacking. No group of words or diagrams can adequately describe God. The Trinity remains a mystery and will be so until He completes the final revelation. In the mean time, try to see God as three Persons of perfect Love.
When we see God in this light, the entire Gospel message including the sacrifice the Cross becomes more clear. We have no greater example of total self-giving Love than the Trinity.

[1] The ideas in this post are derived in part from the writings of a 12th century theologian, Richard of St. Victor (died A.D. 1173.) In his classic work De Trinitate, Richard explores the mystery of this Christian dogma using a systematic reasoned approach blended with classic philosophy.

7 thoughts on “Perfect Love Requires Three – Unlocking the Mystery of The Trinity”

Although this analogy also has flaws, it helps me to think of the Trinity in terms of a computer. One computer with the Central Processing Unit as God, the Graphical User Interface as Jesus and the Operating System as the Holy Spirit.

MAM,
I’m glad your computer analogy helps to shed some light on the mystery of the Trinity. As you say all analogies can be helpful but can also be misleading.
In your computer analogy, I think the flaws are serious. One of the fundamental aspects of the Trinity is that Father, Son and HS all share the same divine nature. Each ‘person’ is hence God. [An additional characteristic of God is that God has no parts and can not be divided.]
In the computer analogy, the three persons of the Trinity are the CPU, GUI and OS respectively and as such are different parts. They have different characteristics and different functions. To me this seems a serious violation of the fundamental aspects of God that I mentioned above.
Thanks for your input!
Tom

I liked your explanation of the Holy Trinity. I was wondering if you could shed light on John 16:7 “Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. “

Hello Thomas (great name by the way),
I’m glad you enjoyed the post on the Trinity. The idea presented here is not for everyone, but lets face it, the Trinity will continue to be a mystery. However, I thought this idea was interesting food for thought.

Re Jn 16:7 : I’m not sure what your difficulty on that verse is or what you mean by shed some light but here are my two cents worth. If this doesn’t answer your question then please reply and we’ll continue the discussion.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus has explained that he is soon going away. Both Peter (Jn 13:36) and John (Jn 14:5) earlier asked about where he was going, but didn’t press the question. That said, it is clear that they both were trouble by the prospect of Jesus’ impending departure.
It seems to me that in Jn 16:7 Jesus is reassuring the disciples that they won’t be left alone and in fact greater blessings will come when the Holy Spirit comes to dwell with them. When that happens, their sorrow will be turned to joy.

Take for example this commentary regarding what the grace of the Holy Spirit will deliver:
” To dispel their sorrow, He announces to them a consoling truth, which would dissipate their erroneous ideas regarding His departure, and the bereavement it would cause them, which, as emanating from Him, they should believe. This truth was, that far from being an evil, as regards them, His departure, on the contrary, would be to them a source of blessings.
“For, if I go not, the Paraclete.” This sweet Comforter, so often promised you, to console you and teach you all truth—“will not come.” My departure by death, and by glorification in the bosom of My Father, is a necessary condition for the coming of this Paraclete—a necessary step to wean My followers from too much attachment to Me personally, and thus render them fit for the reception of the Holy Spirit, and the full participation in the blessings of His coming.
“But, if I go, I will send Him to you.” This shows the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Son as well as from the Father; and also the distinction of persons. The person sending is distinct from the person sent. ” (1)
(1) MacEvilly, J. (1902). An Exposition of the Gospel of St. John (p. 303). Dublin; New York: M. H. Gill & Son; Benziger Brothers.

or this commentary that emphasizes these passages as a further disclosure of the Holy Spirit as part of the Trinity:

“The Holy Ghost is the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity. Our Lord calls Him “another Paraclete”, who would, in His own stead, enlighten, sanctify, strengthen and comfort the apostles and those who came after them, till the end of all things. This shows us that the Holy Ghost must be a Divine Person, distinct from the Father and from the Son. We have just read our Lord’s words: “The Father will send Him in My Name”; and in another passage He speaks of “the Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth, whom I will send you from the Father”. The Holy Ghost is, therefore, the Spirit of the Father and the Son, who proceeds from all eternity from the Father and the Son, and who in time was sent by the Father and the Son. ” (2)
(2) Knecht, F. J. (1910). A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture (p. 646). London; St. Louis, MO: B. Herder.

Thomas,
I’m not sure I can really answer your question.
I don’t know why God has revealed His plan to be: Creation > Christ > Holy Spirit. I only know that is the truth as it has been revealed to me in the Scripture and the Tradition of the Church.

After the creation and fall, mankind was in a real mess. It took the Incarnate Son of God to descend to earth and through the ultimate sacrifice of a man/God, or God/man if you prefer, the entire human race could be saved. That entire process of atonement is such a mind-boggling mystery that I won’t even get into that at this time. However, once Jesus completed His Divine mission on earth, it was also revealed that the work of God was not complete. [This in no way suggests that Jesus’ role on the cross was insufficient.]
In Gods own way, he planned to provide for us the Holy Spirit after Christ. Through the HS we would, across all ages, be strengthened to understand the plan of the Father, and the Son, and to act according to that plan. The Gifts of the HS are intended to produce the fruits of the HS which ultimate saves all of mankind.
Was Jesus’ role on earth perfect – yes!!! But, that was not the end of God’s plan. The HS is needed in our lives to change us, to infuse our fallen nature with the divine nature of God so that we actually change in nature. We become as St. Peter says, ‘partakers of the divine nature’.

Jesus lets us know in Jn 16:7 that part of God’s plan was to send the HS. Thank God!…I need all the help He provides.
I don’t know why this is the order of God’s plan, but I do know that it is HIS plan. Therefore, I look for the HS in my life – the Advocate, the Sanctifier. The HS is the continuation and consummation of God’s plan.